Meredith Corporation completed its acquisition of Time Inc. for $2.8 billion earlier this year
Salesforce founder and co-CEO Marc Benioff and his wife, Lynne Benioff, announced plans to purchase Time Magazine for $190 million, Meredith announced on Sunday.
The Benioffs indicated that they were buying the storied newsmagazine personally and the transaction is unrelated to Salesforce.com, where Mr. Benioff serves as chairman, co-CEO and founder.
The Benioffs said they would not be involved in the magazine’s day-to-day operations or journalistic decisions, which will continue to be led by the current executive leadership team.
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“We have deep respect for their organization & honored to be stewards of this iconic brand,” Benioff said in a tweet on Sunday.
The tech guru — whose fortune is estimated to be $6.5 billion, according to Forbes — is the latest to invest in a legacy media brand. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ purchase of the Washington Post has proved remarkably successful, while former Facebook exec Chris Hughes had a rockier time with his brief ownership of The New Republic.
Meredith, which completed a $2.8 billion all-cash acquisition of Time Inc. earlier this year, said the transaction was subject to regulatory approval and expected to close within 30 days.
In March, just over a month after completing the acquisition, Meredith announced plans to sell the flagship magazine as well as to seek buyers for other longtime Time Inc. titles — Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Money magazines — that do not fit into its more female-skewing portfolio of magazine brands.
